When the Israeli parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of dropping any pretense that it wasn’t an apartheid state, some of the Jewish state’s most ardent American defenders couldn’t even be bothered to pay attention.
“I haven’t been following it closely,” said Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who’s made defending Israel a key part of his political career.
The response was one of a mixed bag among both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill interviewed by The Intercept, but Fetterman’s tone was the most strident in its lack of regard.
Despite its most powerful ally and arms dealer’s stated preference for a two-state solution, Israel’s Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of a symbolic measure to annex the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.
The nonbinding resolution, which was advanced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and passed 71-13 in the Knesset, won’t legally change the reality in the West Bank — but it marks an escalation in the Israeli government’s efforts to annex the territory.
Four Democrats in the Senate and House who spoke to The Intercept condemned the Israeli government’s vote. Others said they hadn’t been following the issue.
Fetterman was one of three senators who told The Intercept on Thursday they were unaware of the Knesset vote. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, declined to comment.
The resolution in the Knesset, or Parliament, called to apply “Israeli sovereignty, law, judgment and administration to all the areas of Jewish settlement of all kinds in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley” — which is how most Israelis refer to the West Bank.
